Rainshadow Desert
.]] The '''Rainshadow Desert' is a large desert on the coast of Pangaea II in 200 million AD, bordering a coastal mountain range towards the Global Ocean, and the Central Desert towards the centre of the continent. Combined, the two deserts cover 19,800,000 square miles. As a rain shadow, it was created by the presence of the mountains, which prevent oceanic moisutre from reaching inland. Geography Most of the coastal regions of Pangaea II are forested, or at least populated by grasslands, due to the constant rainstorms battering the shores. However, along the eastern coast, these storms - even the extremely powerful hypercanes - are blocked from hydrating the land by the presence of the Pangaea II coastal mountain range, an extremely long and tall mountain chain. The winds lose their moisture as they rise up the mountains and move through the mountain passes and valleys, so by the time they billow out into the desert, they are simply dry gusts. Thus, the presence of the mountains has created a large, extremely dry and arid desert all along their western slopes. Climate As noted above, the Rainshadow Desert's distinguishing feature is its near-total lack of moisture, and complete absence of surface water. The desert lies directly on the equator, so temperatures are generally high in the day, before cooling during the night due to the long shadows cast by the mountains. Life s.]] s, rabbit-sized cone snails with powerful jumping organs.]] Despite the lack of water, there is more vegetation in the Rainshadow Desert than there is in the Central Desert. It is populated mainly by various tough, thorny shrubs, as well as a tall, plumed plant. One flowering plant of the Rainshadow Desert, the deathbottle, is carnivorous, and catches small animals in its subterranean traps. Valuable nutrition is provided for the animals and plants of the Rainshadow Desert by an unlikely animal: the ocean flish. Flish and other marine animals of the Global Ocean are often caught up in powerful hypercanes and flung over the mountains into the desert, where their bodies, called flishwrecks, are used by bumblebeetles for depositing their eggs. They also presumably provide nutrients for plants. As elsewhere on the continent, the dominant animals of the Rainshadow Desert are invertebrates, which get all their moisture from their food. Small, single-legged gastropods, called desert hoppers, browse on vegetation and are themselves eaten by deathbottle plants, and flying insects such as bumblebeetles spend their entire adult lives searching for a flishwreck to deposit eggs in. Gallery FIW 1x12 Rainshadow Desert 3.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow Desert 2.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow mounds.png FIW_1x12_Low mountains.png FIW 1x12 Rainshadow Desert morning.png List of appearances Which is your favourite organism of the ? Bumblebeetle Desert hopper Deathbottle *The Future Is Wild'' **1x01. Welcome to the Future **1x12. Graveyard Desert **''The Future Is Wild'' (US) *''The Future Is Wild: A Natural History of the Future'' *''The Future Is Wild'' manga **07. Rainshadow Desert *''The Future Is Wild: The Living Book'' Notes *Examples of rain shadow deserts in the real world include the Tibetan Plateau (blocked by the Himalayas) and the Atacama Desert (blocked by the Andes to the east and the Chilean Coast Range to the west). *In both the Animal Planet version of The Future Is Wild and the ''The Future Is Wild'' fulldome show, no distinction is made between the Rainshadow Desert and the Central Desert. The official introductory video for 200 million AD also includes an unused shot of rainshadow plants in what appears to be the Central Desert. In other languages References Navigation Category:Ecoregions Category:Ecoregions of 200 million AD Category:Ecoregions of Pangaea II Category:200 million AD